Dan Smith wins EPT Barcelona Super High Roller

Monday, 20 August 2012

Dan Smith has won the first €50k Super High Roller of the new European Poker Tour season in Barcelona. The American is no stranger to success on the EPT with a trio of victories in $5k events at the Grand Final earlier this year.

55 players plus nine reloads meant a prize pool of just north of €3m with Smith walking away with just under €1m of the booty after beating a stacked final table that includes such luminaries as Brit Talal Shakerchi, Erik Seidel, Mike 'Timex' McDonald and online legend Ilari Sahamies.

After Mike Watson departed in third place, Smith, who was holding a 5 to 3 chip lead, agreed a chop with JC Alvarado which saw him guaranteed €862,925 and the Mexican €788,675. Smith worked his way into a healthy chip leads and sealed the extra €100k and the Shambala bracelet coming from behind with AK to beat Alvarado's KK.

Tuesday is the deadline for all working Americans to have submitted their income tax returns to the federal government and Juicy Stakes and Intertops Poker are set to mark this annual occasion by holding a special freeroll competition featuring a $1,000 top prize.

“We run a lot of higher stakes tournaments for our more hard-core players,” said Intertops’ poker manager. “But since our network is generally pretty soft, we created this series to give less competitive players a shot at winning.”